Posts tagged Facebook

It seems obvious: if you want to be effective in your social media efforts, you should listen to your customers. Whether they’re tweeting about your services, or starting conversations on your Facebook fan page, customers do these things because they find value in the activity…and they want their voices and opinions to be heard.

Yet despite this no-brainer, it’s surprising how many companies and businesses pursue social media simply for the sake of saying that they do it, rather than truly committing to the complex and resource-intensive task of starting–and finishing–relationships that happen at the speed of the web.

The Importance of Listening

Don’t get me wrong. It is important to have a well developed (and executed!) strategy for your social media efforts. Everything from frequency, to platforms, to messaging should be CAREFULLY considered and implemented even more intentionally. Yet for all of this, remember that social media for a business is ultimately about giving. Sure, you want to increase visibility, drive sales, and develop better awareness of your brand (and if you’re doing things right, these will naturally follow). However, the bottom line of social media is ultimately about what your customers, fans, and followers get from you. Yes, it sucks More >

Since the release of Places for Facebook (you know, the super-cool new feature of Facebook where you can tell all your friends exactly where you are with maps and such?), there has been a flurry of discussion about what the emergence of Facebook within the realm of geolocation means for other, more established services like Foursquare. Some have predicted that Facebook, with its 500-million+ user base, will quickly rise to prominence out of sheer mass, crushing other services in its massive wake. Others–myself included–have argued that other location-based services can survive by focusing their efforts, refining their services, and looking for strategic ways to deliver amazing content and services in a more agile manner than the behemoth Facebook.

In the midst of the conversation and debate, however, the predominant view has been to see the discussion as one of Facebook vs. Foursquare (or Gowalla, or Britekite, or whoever else). While there are certainly valid points in this line of thinking, let me offer some ideas on Facebook and Foursquare living in harmony, or at least occupying relevant spaces in individual users’ smart back pockets.

UPDATE: As of today (August 20, 2010), Places in Facebook is available natively for iPhone (update your FB app, if you haven’t already), as well as on any mobile device that has a browser that supports HTML5 and geolocation. If you have a non-iPhone mobile browser that fits the bill, visit touch.facebook.com to get started with Places.

On Wednesday (August 18th, 2010), Facebook rolled out its much anticipated “Places” for mobile. Like other location-based services, Places allows users to “check in” to locations and venues that are already in the system, or even add their own. Additionally, Facebook users can tag their friends at the same location and add a brief description of the outing, providing something of a mini-history of the individual’s or group’s night out on the town.

With Facebook wading into the fray of location-based services, what do already-established contenders like Foursquare have to fear?

If we examine the idea on the basis of the kinds of services that Facebook Places and Foursquare offer, I don’t think Foursquare has much to fear. Places is very stripped down in its current iteration–there are no badges, no points, no mayorships for the checkin-er to win and display proudly. You can’t add tips to Places, and More >